One Lord
Exodus 20:2-5
Definitions:
Orthodox- right belief
Catholic- fully encompassing
“To believe the creed is not merely to assent to its truthfulness, but to enter it, even, in a sense, to become it. Creeds have consequences. Christ’s story becomes our story, and our story is folded into his.” –Michael J. Gorman
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
There is only one God.
God is the Father.
God is the Almighty.
God is the Creator.
Deuteronomy 6:1-9
1 “This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. 2 Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. 3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.
4 “Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
A flourishing life is the product of knowing and acknowledging the source of life (the Almighty, the Creator).
Exodus 20:1-7
1 Then God spoke all these words:
2 I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.
3 Do not have other gods besides me.
4 Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth. 5 Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, 6 but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commands.
7 Do not misuse the name of the Lord your God, because the Lord will not leave anyone unpunished who misuses his name.
The singularity of God points to the sufficiency of God.
If we truly believe that God is enough, why do we keep bowing to idols and striving for worldly power?
Our lives have become idol factories.
Two Types of Idolatry:
1. Treating God like something that is not God.
G.K. Chesterton- “When we cease to worship God, we do not worship nothing, we worship anything.”
2. Treating something that is not God as if it is God.
Idols will inevitably involve self-centeredness, self-inflation, and self-deception.
Isaiah 42:5-9
Meaning/purpose is received, not made.
You are not the Creator.
You were made on purpose for a purpose:
to confess faith in a Maker,
to surrender your story,
and to receive your vocation, identity, and life from the Creator himself.
What does it mean to believe these words?
1.It means we believe God is the one true source of everything–singular, sufficient, sovereign, and supreme.
• He is the only one. He is enough. He reigns over all. He is above all. He is the beginning of all.
2.It means God alone is God.
• Not me. Not you. Not them. Not it. Only Him.
What does it mean to live by these words?
1.It means we refuse to treat anything that is not God as if it were.
• No substitute can save. No idol can satisfy.
2.It means we resist the urge to reshape God in our image.
• Instead, we live knowing He is enough. We turn to Him as our source. We receive His words of blessing and love. We walk in His purpose for our lives.
